Dan Shanks joined the Coker Office of Institutional Advancement in August of 2013 as the College’s Athletic Development Officer. He was promoted to Assistant AD for Athletic Development in July of 2015.

Shanks came to Coker after serving as a Human Terrain Specialist for the United States government since 2010. He spent approximately 30 months working in Afghanistan as a socio-cultural adviser to the US Military and various other governmental agencies.

A 1997 graduate of Coker, Shanks was All-American men’s basketball player for the Cobras. Considered by many as one of the best male athletes to ever don a Coker uniform. Shanks is second on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,895 career points and he holds multiple records at Coker including; the highest scoring average for a season (21.8) and career (18.9), the most points scored in a season (610), the highest free-throw percentage in a season (93) and the highest free-throw percentage in a game (100).

He was part of the ’94-95 team that won a school-record 10 straight games, led the program to a No. 14 rank nationally in Division II, and is the only player to win freshman of the year and player of the year honors from the conference in the same season.

During Shanks’ time at Coker, the men’s team won more than 80 games and reached the conference championship three times, winning one.

After graduation, Shanks spent seven years playing professional basketball in Europe, Belgium, Estonia and Austria. He led the league in scoring twice during his time in Europe. In 2004, he retired from professional basketball. That same year he was inducted into the Coker Athletics Hall of Fame.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Coker and he is currently completing a Master’s of Arts in International Studies at the University of South Carolina.

Currently, he resides in Hartsville with his wife Sophia, a 2000 graduate of Coker.